Make More - Now!

You can’t go to an industry specific conference, training, or event
of any kind without the subject of growth showing up somewhere in the
hallway, the bar, or outside at the smoking area. I love growth and I’m
a fan of continuing conversations that drive growth. The question becomes,
“What type of growth do you want?”

I believe that if we want different/better results in our businesses and
lives, we must begin to ask better questions of ourselves and situations.
When I hear contractors talking about growth, the conversation invariably
is about top line sales growth. Let’s remember something loud and
clear that we all must keep in the forefront of our minds. Sales do not
automatically create profits.

I’ve seen too many $10 million dollar companies that don’t
make much money, if any, when it comes to profit dollars. We all must
stay focused on what the overall goal and I don’t know about you,
but for me, that’s about profitability. I would much rather run
$2 million dollar companies with 15% net profits ($300,000) than $6 million
dollar companies with 5% net profits ($300,000). Profit dollars are exactly
the same, but one company has to do 3X as much revenue to produce the
same dollars in net profits. Guess which one of these scenarios is more
common? I know that you already know the answer to that question.

If we can agree that we want more profits from the work we’re already
doing, then we must seek clarity and focus when it comes to how we spend
our time, our training dollars, our in house coaching times, and accountability.
All of this begins with us as leaders in the company. Regardless of your
position in the business, you possess the ability to be a leader regarding
your position and how you produce results. Accountability has to begin
with us first and foremost, and then begin to translate to the rest of the team.

Most companies don’t have much of a plan when it comes to training
their front line team members. Technicians might get a little training
when convenient, and call takers/dispatchers seem to get training if the
boss hears them lose a call. You must get intentional when it comes to
your training programs. It doesn’t take a lot of time or a lot of
money to produce effective in house training programs, but it does take
focus and intention.

One of the primary reasons I created my monthly
Instant Meeting Maker On Demand Technician Trainingwas to address the service manager’s and owner’s complaints
that they didn’t know what topics to use and how to keep a meeting
on track. Now, with an action guide and a short video, you’ve got
a training meeting ready to go. I’m not trying to sell you my stuff
here, most of you reading this already use our system anyway, I’m
just trying to demonstrate how important this is when it comes to maximizing
the results of each call.

Making the most of each and every call is the fastest way to profit improvements.
One of my good friends always says, overhead is never too high, sales
are just too low. There’s truth to that statement. Of course, you
must keep overhead in check and I believe in running a very tight ship,
but if I can get 10-30% more from each call on average for our clients,
really good things happen for everyone. The customer gets better service
and offered real solutions, the technician wins, and the company wins
as result of an effective process being trained, executed, and held accountable.
Maybe you don’t need more calls or growth on the top line, maybe
you need to get better results from the calls you’re already running.